By Sean Tierney, Team MuscleTech®
Remember to consult your doctor before starting any diet and training program.
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* Introduction
* Train at Night for More Muscle and Decreased Fat!
* Strength Train at Night for the Best Gains
* The Best Time to Train?
* References

Incredible news for bodybuilders and hardcore athletes! Recent research suggests that training in the evening may be more effective when it comes to building muscle, increasing strength and reducing body fat when compared to morning sessions. This theory is based on the basic physiology of how your body is regulated and functions throughout the day. During the course of a regular day, your body transitions between periods of positive nitrogen balance and negative nitrogen balance where it’s either building up muscle, breaking it down or somewhere in between. To add to this, your metabolic rate also changes throughout the day, which can impact things such as protein metabolism, caloric expenditure, muscle cell recovery and glycogen replenishment after a workout. Several third-party researchers believe that the evening may be prime time to take advantage of these key physiological factors if you want to get the most out of your training.

Train at Night for More Muscle and Decreased Fat!

Train at Night for More Muscle and Decreased Fat!In an unpublished study, an American researcher investigated the effect of time-of-day training on body composition changes in 16 weight-trained men (Scheet, T. 2005). Half the subjects trained in the morning (prior to 10 am) while the other half trained in the evening (after 6 pm). After 10 weeks of training, the findings revealed that the evening training group experienced a 3 percent increase in lean muscle and a
4 percent decrease in bodyfat compared to the morning training group which barely increased lean muscle and did not decrease body fat. The researcher in this study suggested a possible explanation for the reduction in body fat findings as being correlated with metabolic rate. He explained that the body’s metabolism typically starts to decline in the evening. If you train at this moment, you force your metabolism to start working harder and burn more energy over the course of the entire day.

Strength Train at Night for the Best Gains

Strength Train at Night for the Best GainsIf you train to increase power and strength, research conducted at the French Laboratoire INSERM will be of particular interest to you (Guette, M., 2005). In this study, tests were performed on ten healthy male subjects at four-hour intervals throughout the day starting at 6 am to 10 pm to determine neural and muscular mechanisms that influence muscle strength. The highest values of maximum voluntary contraction (muscular power) were observed at 6 pm and the lowest values of muscular power were observed at 6 am. The researchers also noticed a corresponding relationship with the subject’s body temperature and maximal strength levels. They speculated that body temperature and metabolism is generally highest at around 4 pm which could cause muscle cells to perform at their optimal capacity during the evening training.

The Best Time to Train?

The Best Time to Train is in the EveningWhether you train to get bigger, stronger or both, recent research makes a case for hitting the iron in the evening. When you consider things like metabolic advantages and increased muscular power, it appears that your body’s physiology is just better primed for making gains in size and strength by training around 6 pm. If you can switch your training sessions to the evening, it’s worth a shot to test it out for a couple of months. But if you’re schedule won’t allow for it, not to worry – the differences between morning and evening training are not significant enough to render morning training ineffective.

Department of Biology of Physical Activity, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. [email protected]
Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of time-of-day-specific strength training on muscle hypertrophy and maximal strength in men. A training group underwent a 10-week preparatory training (wk 0-wk 10) scheduled between 17:00 and 19:00 hours. Thereafter, the subjects were randomized either to a morning or afternoon training group. They continued with a 10-week time-of-day-specific training (wk 11-wk 20) with training times between 07:00 and 09:00 hours and 17:00 and 19:00 hours in the morning group and afternoon groups, respectively. A control group did not train but was tested at all occasions. Quadriceps femoris (QF) cross-sectional areas (CSA) and volume were obtained by magnetic resonance imaging scan at week 10 and 20. Maximum voluntary isometric strength during unilateral knee extensions and half-squat 1 repetition maximum (1RM) were tested at week 0, 10, and 20 at a randomly given time of day between 09:00 and 16:00 hours. The QF average CSA and volume increased significantly (p < 0.001) in both the morning and afternoon training groups by 2.7% and 3.5%, respectively. The 0.8% difference between the training groups was not significant. The entire 20-week training period resulted in significant increases in maximum voluntary contraction and 1RM of similar magnitude in both training groups (p < 0.001 and p < 0.01, respectively) as compared with the control group. In conclusion, 10 weeks of strength training performed either in the morning or in the afternoon resulted in significant increases in QF muscle size. The magnitude of muscular hypertrophy did not statistically differ between the morning and afternoon training times. From a practical point of view, strength training in the morning and afternoon hours can be similarly efficient when aiming for muscle hypertrophy over a shorter period of time (<3 mo).

PMID: 19910830 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Effects of 5 Weeks of Training at the Same Time of Day on the Diurnal Variations of Maximal Muscle Power Performance

Blonc, S, Perrot, S, Racinais, S, Aussepe, S, and Hue, O. Effects of 5 weeks of training at the same time of day on the diurnal variations of maximal muscle power performance. J Strength Cond Res 24(1): 23-29, 2010-The purpose of this study was to investigate whether maximal muscle power production in humans is influenced by the habitual time of training to provide recommendations for adapting training hours in the month preceding a competition. Sixteen participants performed maximal brief squat and countermovement jumps and short-term cycle sprints tests before and after 5 weeks of training. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a Morning-Trained Group (MTG, 7:00-9:00 hr) or an Evening-Trained Group (ETG, 17:00-19:00 hr). They trained and performed the evaluation tests in both the morning and evening in their naturally warm and moderately humid environment. The results indicated a significant increase in performance (approximately 5-6% for both tests) after training for both groups but failed to show any time-of-day effect on either performance or training benefit. These findings could be linked to the stabilization of performances throughout the day because of the passive warm-up effect of the environment. In summary, our data showed that anaerobic muscle power production could be performed at any time of day with the same benefit.

(C) 2010 National Strength and Conditioning Association

Maybe switching from evening to morning can have some negative effects over the course of 10 weeks, but they are not significant and are very individual based:

Department of Biology of Physical Activity and Neuromuscular Research Centre, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland. [email protected]
Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of time-of-day-specific strength training on maximum strength and electromyography (EMG) of the knee extensors in men. After a 10-week preparatory training period (training times 17:00-19:00 h), 27 participants were randomized into a morning (07:00-09:00 h, n = 14) and an evening group (17:00-19.00 h, n = 13). Both groups then underwent 10 weeks of time-of-day-specific training. A matched control group (n = 7) completed all testing but did not train. Unilateral isometric knee extension peak torque (MVC) and one-repetition maximum half-squat were assessed before and after the preparatory training and after the time-of-day-specific training at times that were not training-specific (between 09:00 and 16:00 h). During training-specific hours, peak torque and EMG during MVC and submaximum isometric contraction at 40% MVC were assessed before and after the time-of-day-specific training. The main finding was that a significant diurnal difference (P < 0.01) in peak torque between the 07:00 and 17:00 h tests decreased after time-of-day-specific training in the morning group but not in the evening or control groups. However, the extent of this time-of-day-specific adaptation varied between individuals.Electromyography during MVC did not show any time-of-day-specific adaptation, suggesting that peripheral rather than neural adaptations are the main source of temporal specificity in strength training.

PMID: 18608836 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Although, a major search of the literature will tell you this: Schedule your training to match your competition times. If you compete in the AM, train in the AM. If you compete in the PM, train in the PM. There seems to be a very specific adaptation to enhance arousal at the specified time via training at that time.

All I can say is if you train in the AM, everything you eat the rest of the day is a PostWO meal!

But due to work I usually do workout in the PM, but then I only get a shake and small meal in before bed, and with all the water I just drank working out I'm up all night going pee anyway, so sleep suffers.

All I can say is if you train in the AM, everything you eat the rest of the day is a PostWO meal!

But due to work I usually do workout in the PM, but then I only get a shake and small meal in before bed, and with all the water I just drank working out I'm up all night going pee anyway, so sleep suffers.

But... getting up to piss is a perfect time to down another caesin shake!

ive always trained at night so i cant say, but have people who usually train in the morning then start to train at night notice a difference?

I have trained first thing, pre-bed, in both the morning and evening, as well as double sessions throughout the course of the day, and have not noticed a difference re muscle growth, fat loss, strength, etc. when training at different times of the day.

~Rosie~

Athlete ~ Trainer ~ Writer
"Think like a Champion. Train like a Warrior. Live with a Purpose." - @rosiecheewarrior